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About John H. Twachtman
"John H. Twachtman was an American impressionist painter." With this unqualified statement, Richard J. Boyle opened his monograph on the artist in 1979. Lisa N. Peters, twenty years later, titled her new monograph: John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist. Other recent writers, for example, Hiesinger, talk of an "Impressionist phase" in Twachtman’s career, ignoring John Douglass Hale’s conclusion that "Twachtman had never been a true impressionist." Hale was the first scholar to study the life and art of Twachtman in depth. Upon the painter’s death, a writer in the New York Times stated that the artist "never gave himself up to the fascinations of ‘decomposed colors’ and ‘vibratory’ color effects as did some of his fellows." Guy Pène du Bois remarked how Twachtman "could only awkwardly be fitted into the small cubby-hole marked Impressionist." The highly original art of John Twachtman has been a challenge to art historians eager to classify him. While Sheldon Cheney labeled Twachtman a modernist, Wanda Corn included him in her study of *tonalism. Works such as Mother and Child (The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) seem to acknowledge *Theodore Earl Butler’s *post-impressionist style, characteristic of his own baby-bathing genre. There is a certain justification in suggesting the late style of Monet as a source for Twachtman, as did Wolfgang Born in 1948 but such a theory would require testing.
Frederick Christian Twachtman and Sophia Droege, John Twachtman’s parents, were from Hanover, Germany. Frederick was employed by the Brebeman Brothers window shade factory. Twachtman spoke very little of his childhood, which was not a happy time. After enrolling at the Ohio Mechanics Institute in 1868, he painted Tuckerman’s Ravine (Private collection), still within the *Hudson River School tradition. He met *Frank Duveneck at the *McMicken School in 1874. Duveneck had recently returned from Munich, complete with cape and cane; he was described as a swaggering swell, telling "awful[ly] big stories." After Duveneck’s successful Boston exhibition, he invited Twachtman to accompany him back to Europe. Twachtman enrolled in the *Munich Academy under *Loefftz and also worked with Duveneck at the *picturesque, abandoned Holy Cross monastery in Polling. In 1877, Twachtman went to Venice with Duveneck and *William Merritt Chase. Some of his Venetian scenes resemble *Corot or *Courbet rather than the sunny images that one associates with Duveneck. But thanks to Lisa Peters’s article on Twachtman in Venice, one can see clearly how the artist was already moving from the dark palette of Munich in 1877. His View of Venice (Berry-Hill Galleries, New York) shows the warm effects of full sunlight, especially in the group of buildings on the right. On the other hand, Ship and Dock (ca. 1878), in a private collection, is pure Munich style. Twachtman preferred such uncharacteristic views of Venice as opposed to the standard picture postcard veduto.
Twachtman returned to America after the news of his father’s death. Following a period in Cincinnati, Twachtman went to New York where he painted New York Harbor (late 1879; Cincinnati Art Museum), a rather black and white affair. Also in 1879, Twachtman became a member of the *Society of American Artists; six works were exhibited at the Society’s second annual exhibition. That same year marks Twachtman’s debut at the *National Academy of Design, where his works were shown until 1898. Twachtman also joined the *Tile Club, then taught at the *Women’s Art Museum Association back in Cincinnati. He wandered all along the East Coast during the summer of 1880, and that fall, he was back in Italy, this time to teach with Duveneck in Florence. There he rubbed elbows with *John White Alexander, *Otto Bacher, *Joseph R. DeCamp, *Julius Rolshoven, *Theodore Wendel, and others. Peters (1999, p. 47) reproduces Florence, near Fiesole (Virginia Couse Leavitt), done at that time, which seems close to *Barbizon School landscapes.
Back in Cincinnati once again, Twachtman married Martha Scudder (1861-1936); Martha herself was an etcher and painter who exhibited at the *American Water Color Society. The newlyweds went to Europe, as it was the fashionable honeymoon destination in 1881. The tour included Belgium, Holland, England, Germany, and Venice. Twachtman signed the guest register at the Frans *Hals Museum in Haarlem on 1 August 1881. A son was born in 1882, under the careful watch of Martha’s father, the aggressive physician, Dr. John Scudder. Twachtman believed further study abroad was necessary, so he entered the *Académie Julian in 1883. His fellow students included *Frank W. Benson, *Childe Hassam, *Willard Metcalf, and *Edmund Tarbell. No figurative works associated with Twachtman’s academic studies have survived. His mind was on landscape, which he pursued in the summer in Normandy. Suddenly, the blacks and browns of the Munich school disappeared.
Boyle identified Twachtman’s landscape Arques-la-Bataille as the rejected picture at the Paris Salon of 1885. The painting, now in the *Metropolitan Museum of Art, would have been too simple, fresh, and lacking in composition when scrutinized by academic eyes. The focus of a clump of reeds in the center of the painting was probably incomprehensible. While in Paris, the Twachtmans added a baby daughter, Marjorie, to their little family. Martha took the children home to Cincinnati while John spent the summer in France and Holland, revisiting the Frans Hals Museum, then joined Duveneck and some of the "Boys" in Venice. There, *Whistler’s pastel style was probably introduced to Twachtman by *Robert Blum or Otto Bacher. There is a slight chance that Whistler met Twachtman in Venice. Lisa Peters points out how Twachtman’s The Lagoon, Venice (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston) reflects Whistler’s compositional scheme with its high horizon line, "broad, empty
foreground space and the misty atmosphere." One need only compare Whistler’s Venetian Scene (New Britain Museum of American Art), dated 1879-80. Both the composition and the delicacy of touch are similar in the two artists’ works.
One wonders if the impressionist exhibition of canvases owned by *Durand-Ruel (in New York) in 1886 had an impact on Twachtman. That summer, the Twachtman family was in Greenwich, Connecticut and moved to *Cos Cob in September. A third daughter, Elsie, came into the world that year. Twachtman received a commission to paint the sky area in a cyclorama that depicted a battle scene, perhaps The Battle of Gettysburg. From this lucrative work, he was able to devote more time to easel paintings, such as Along the River, Winter (High Museum of Art, Atlanta), one of the earliest snowscapes; it is a subtle symphony of whites, punctuated by parallel carriage tracks in the center. Soon he joined his friend *J. Alden Weir in Branchville, Connecticut.
In 1888, Twachtman’s Venetian pastels were praised by critics at the exhibition "Painters in Pastel," a group associated with Chase, Blum, *Hugh Bolton Jones, and others. Also that year he showed seven oil paintings at the *Society of American Artists’ tenth annual exhibition. Included was Windmills, now in a private collection, which was awarded the Webb Prize. In February of 1889, Twachtman and Weir each exhibited forty-two works at Ortgies and Company on Fifth Avenue, where every picture was sold. That fall, Twachtman began teaching at the *Art Students League, a post he kept until his death. In addition, he worked as an illustrator for Scribner’s, and he would teach at the *Cooper Institute, as well as classes in Newport, Rhode Island and at Cos Cob.
With money from the recent impressive sale and financial support from Dr. Scudder, who advised Twachtman to
combine painting with farming, the painter bought a farm at Roundhill (Horseneck Falls) near Greenwich (ca. 1890-91). There and at Cos Cob, Twachtman discovered his definitive style, which lasted through the 1890s. Some scholars call this his turning "fully to Impressionism," or to a "modified form of French Impressionism." Eliot Clark sensed that Twachtman’s finest paintings were done at this new home, where he captured a *Spirit of Place: There is a feeling of home in his pictures, of a country well beloved. The painter has, as it were, become a part of the thing painted. We feel a perfect intimacy, which comes from perfect understanding. Not descriptive in a purely graphic or illustrative sense, the pictures of Connecticut reveal the type and character of the country, its nearness, its friendliness, its peculiarly intimate charm. Unfortunately for scholars, few of the paintings assigned to the 1890s are dated to a specific year and Lisa Peters details problems of chronology during this decade. Contemporary critics found Twachtman’s paintings to be more delicate, marked by gray-greens and silvery blues, compared to the "barbaric color" of the French impressionists (New York Sun, 5 May 1893). Alfred Trumble, when looking at Twachtman’s works, likened the experience to viewing canvases by Monet and *Sisley "through a fog," and regretted the American’s lack of *"virile power," perhaps unaware that Twachtman had recently fathered two more sons: Eric Christian in 1891 and Quentin, a year later. Peters stresses how Twachtman’s Greenwich canvases are "distinctly American scenes" that reflect the Spirit of Place, but influenced by French impressionism. Also in 1893, Twachtman took part in a four-man show with Weir, Monet, and Albert Besnard at the American Art Galleries. In the Sunlight (Private collection), Mother and Child (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), and Last Touch of Sun (Manoogian Collection) were works included in that 1893 exhibition. Here critics had the ideal opportunity to compare Monet’s "original" impressionism to any of Twachtman’s forty-four works. The critic of the New York Sun (5 May 1893) declared that Twachtman came closer than any other American painter to tackling some of Monet’s plein-air technical problems. For the New York Daily Tribune (28 May 1893), Twachtman demonstrated "a sensitiveness to the sentiment of the landscape." In addition, four works were exhibited at Chicago’s *World’s Columbian Exposition: Brook in Winter (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Decorative Landscape, Autumn Shadows (both unlocated), and The Brooklyn Bridge (Private collection). He was awarded a silver medal. Both Weir and Twachtman were asked to serve on the selection jury but both declined.After 1893, Twachtman became more experimental, showing an interest in the fleeting aspects of nature, looser compositions, and a "new attention to surface pattern." In the winter of 1893-94 he executed several views of Niagara Falls; all feature a very *high-keyed palette, possibly from Monet’s influence. In 1894, Twachtman won the Temple Gold Medal from the *Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From 1895 comes the Wichita Art Museum’s Falls in January, a dynamic "frozen river" winter landscape, whose palette is restricted to blue, purple, and white with one or two strokes of yellow ochre. Emerald Pool, almost nothing but an abstract oval form (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut), and River in Winter (Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh) are also dated ca. 1895. That year, Mrs. Twachtman and three children came down with scarlet fever, which claimed the life of Elsie. Fortunately, new-born Violet was spared, and another son Godfrey was born in 1897. In December of 1897, the group that would later be called *the Ten was formed. Twachtman was directly involved in the mass resignation from the Society of American Artists that month. Hassam "acknowledged that it was Weir and Twachtman who contributed most to the artistic success of the Ten." The Ten found that the SAA had grown too large, that exhibitions had become too commercial, and that artistic standards had fallen. Apparently, *Kenyon Cox, a foe of impressionism, was happy to see the Ten’s departure. Both *Sadakichi Hartmann and Charles H. Caffin saw their move as decisive, but the Ten denied any such damaging aim. To the Ten’s first exhibition at the Durand-Ruel Galleries on Fifth Avenue, which opened on 30 March 1898, Twachtman contributed On the Terrace (National Museum of American Art), From the Upper Terrace (Pfeil Collection), Mother and Child (then titled Baby’s Reflection), and he would continue to submit "his latest and boldest works in shows of the Ten." At the first exhibition Twachtman sold one work. A critic for the New York Sun (30 March 1898) wrote how On the Terrace conveyed "the true feeling of out of doors." In the third exhibition, Caffin (1900) noticed a thicker pigment application, which is significant, because it might establish 1899 as the beginning of Twachtman’s late period, as opposed to 1900, when he painted in Gloucester. An exhibition in 1987 covered Twachtman’s final years (Hale, Boyle, and Gerdts, 1987). Twachtman may have visited Duveneck in East Gloucester as early as 1898. In February of 1900, Twachtman and his son J. Alden were featured in a two-man show at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Twachtman, Jr. remained an obscure artist, however, who exhibited later at the *Armory Show (two Spanish subjects). Then in June, Twachtman went to Gloucester, registering at the Rockaway Hotel, at Rocky Neck. Hassam, Duveneck, and Theodore Wendel were in Gloucester that summer, as well. An exhibition was set up in the hotel lobby; participating artists included Joseph R. DeCamp, *Arthur Merton Hazard, Charles Abel Corwin (1857-1938), *Edward Potthast, *Alfred Vance Churchill, *Walter and Eliot Clark, and others. Twachtman returned in the summers of 1901 and 1902 — both years he taught at the ASL summer classes. Between these summers he was in Cos Cob and his family was away in Paris — J. Alden had won a scholarship to live there. Twachtman revealed his pessimism in a letter to *Harrison Morris dated 11 November 1900 (AAA):
"You know very well that I should like to send to your show, but I don’t see how I can afford to. I can not afford to buy frames for one tenth of the things I have. My pictures have been sent to all the cities in the land and are returned after an absence of from three to six months. Pray tell me what benefit there is to me. I have been doing this stunt for the last twenty five years with large frame bills unpaid. . . . Look at the matter from my point of view — as a matter of business and you will have to agree with me."
Yet Twachtman kept on painting and planning for the future. Mase quoted a letter from Twachtman to his wife: "I feel encouraged. . . ." but shortly thereafter he died. Medical authorities were unwilling to specify the cause of death. At the 1903 exhibition of the Ten, five of Twachtman’s paintings were on display above a memorial wreath.
Twachtman’s art has been interpreted, analyzed, and re-evaluated, and has inspired imaginative art-historical essays. One of the more controversial ones, perhaps, is Kathleen Pyne’s "John Twachtman and the Therapeutic Landscape." Her suggestion that Twachtman’s quiet winter landscapes reflected a Zen-like merging of one’s mind with the "universal spirit of the cosmos" might seem far-fetched. Laurvik, however, suggested a Japanese connection back in 1915 and linked the "Zen landscape" to Twachtman’s winter scenes. Lisa Peters concludes that Twachtman was an artist "who stood on the brink of modernism, while continuing to embrace the natural world." Royal Cortissoz was impressed by Twachtman’s special feeling "for whatever in nature was dainty, elusive, tenderly charming. His
pastels of flowers expressed perhaps the most fragile sentiment in the scale through which he ranged over the poetic, more evanescent side of nature." Twachtman was probably the most subtle American landscape painter of his time, a genius of the first rank. From his early training in Munich where he perfected virtuoso brushwork, Twachtman succeeded in creating a conceptual image of nature quite mystical and almost ethereal. In arranging solids and voids, using flattened areas of spontaneous color, Twachtman was a master of composition. He was genuine and full of integrity but a painter’s painter, not too appreciated by the public. Although Eliot Clark found Twachtman’s art to be more sensuous than intellectual, "more pleasing than profound," he concluded, "If Twachtman does not soar in the universal empyrean, he lures us to the tranquility of his own world of beauty."
REF.
"The Fine Arts," 1891; "John H. Twachtman," 1902; Dewing et al, 1903; Roof, 1903; Goodwin, 1905; Caffin, 1907, pp. 278-282; Curran 1910; Cournos, 1914; Laurvik, in Catalogue de Luxe, 1915, pp. 44-46; Art in California, 1916, pl. 138; De Kay, 1918; Clark, 1919-B; Phillips, 1919; Ryerson, 1920; Clark, 1921-B; Mase, 1921; Wickendon, 1921; Cortissoz, 1923-A, pp. 133-138; Clark, 1924; Wheeler, 1927, pp. 113-
114; Jackman, 1928, pp. 165-167; Neuhaus, 1931, pp. 262-264; Tucker, 1931; Art in America, 1934, p. 87; Baur, 1937, pp. 6-7, 10, 13; Landgren, 1940, pp. 57, 84, fig. 17; Saint-Gaudens, 1941, pp. 195-196; Born, 1948, pp. 179, 184; Art Students League, 1951, cat. no. 10; Hale, 1957; Prown, 1969, pp. 122-123; Corn, 1972, pp. 11-12, 31, 42; Hoopes, 1972, pp. 86-89; Domit, 1973, pp. 127-133; Howat and Pilgrim, 1973, pp. 65-71; O’Gorman, 1973-A; Boyle, 1974, pp. 166-170; Eldredge, 1974; O’Gorman, 1976, pp. 66-69; Pierce, 1976, pp. 133-140; Wilmerding, 1976, pp. 155-157; Mandel, 1977, pp. 72-74; Boyle, 1978; Brown et al, 1978, p. 310; Boyle, 1979; Cincinnati Art Museum, 1979, cat. nos. 282-290; Burke, 1980, pp. 147-152; Connecticut and American Impressionism, 1980; Gerdts, 1980; David W. Scott, in Encyclopedia of American Art, 1981, p. 571; Gerdts, Sweet and Preato, 1982, pp. 75, 90; Impressionnistes Américains, 1982, pp. 136-141; Gerdts, 1984; Pisano, 1985, pp. 4, 132-133; Hale, Boyle, and Gerdts, 1987; Weber (in Weber and Gerdts, 1987), p. 16; American Pastels, 1989, pp. 70-71; Peters, 1989-A and B; Peters, Gerdts, Hale, and Boyle, 1989; Vitz, 1989, pp. 171-174; Chotner, Peters, and Pyne, 1989-90; Bolger, in American Art around 1900, 1990, pp. 15-27; Gerdts, 1990, vol. 1, pp. 68-69, 129-121, vol. 2, p. 198; Ten American Painters, 1990, pp. 128-133, 168-169; Gerdts, 1991, pp. 76-93, 157-158; Hiesinger, 1991; Gerdts, 1992-A, pp. 72-74, 208-211; Gerdts, 1992-B, cat. no. 78; Stebbins, 1992, cat. no. 122; Strazdes et al, 1992, pp. 456-459; Revisiting the White City, 1993, pp. 332-333; Gerdts, 1994, pp. 149-151; Keny and Maciejunes, 1994, pp. 80, 127-128, 159-160; Weinberg, Bolger, and Curry, 1994, pp. 61-64, 71, 75-77, 97-99, 357-358; Peters, 1995; Addison Gallery of American Art: 65 Years, 1996, cat. nos. 295-296; Coles, 1996, pp. 72, 83; Larkin, 1998; Peters, 1997, cat. nos. 5 and 9; Peters, 1999; Boyle, in Encyclopedia of American Art before 1914, 2000, pp. 515-516; Prelinger, 2000, pp. 94-103; Davies, 2001, pp. 58-59. |
Paintings by John H. Twachtman
| Trees |
| oil on canvas: 7 x 9 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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